I just opened my case last night. I’m very impressed. A couple of minis are bent, but there’s ways to fix that. I apparently ordered a case of Axis Naval Miniatures, I’m one Italian BB away from an Axis set. Only two Allied minis, Hood and Salt Lake City.
I just bought a starter kit and a booster awhile ago. I didn’t buy a lot like other people cause I want to see how the game is before I get committed to getting a larger collection. I do hope I get a battleship or an aircraft carrier. :-D
I played Naval Miniatures yesterday. It was actually pretty fun. The rules are much better than the Starwars: Starship Battles game that came out a little while back. (In case you’ve played the game, too). There’s a decent amount of strategy involved, though the smaller point-size battles you run, the more luck comes into play. The system includes rules both for doing a small amount of damage to an enemy ship per succefful hit, or for doing enough vital damage to completely destroy a target in one hit. (The Hood also has its own special “design flaw” rule for getting killed in a single hit.)
In the game I played, I was Japan. My fleet consisted of the Yamato, two carrers, 7 flights of planes, one sub, one destroyer, and one small sub-chaser. My opponent played the US. He had the Iowa, the Washington, the Tenessee, one destroyer, and two subs.
In the early game, as the two fleets were closing, my planes managed to sink one of the subs, get a couple torpedo hits on the Washington, and sink the lone American destroyer. Once the two fleets came together, I used some skillfull manuevering to draw the Iowa in close and negate its range advantage. Then the Yamato charged in to point blank range and did enough vital damage to send the Iowa to the bottom in a single salvo. At the same time, my lowly 4-point sub-chaser took out the other American sub. My opponent then made the mistake of focusing all his remaining power on the Yamato, instead of going after my carriers and trying to get a point victory. The Yamato took quite a pounding, but its heavy armor held up long enough for it to chase down and sink both the Washington and the Tenessee, winning the game.
The lure of a sea battle is great. I only hope the WoC distribution gets sorted quickly and that I get my pieces soon.
How long did this engagement take to play out? Interesting that I just picked up a used video of Readers Digest on WWII Naval battles. In it were the stories of the Battle of the Atlantic, Coral Sea, Midway, Leyte Gulf and Okinnowa. A neat piece of this game seems to be the ability to use ships named exactly for real ships in the war.
thanks for the battle report.
The lure of a sea battle is great. I only hope the WoC distribution gets sorted quickly and that I get my pieces soon.
How long did this engagement take to play out? Interesting that I just picked up a used video of Readers Digest on WWII Naval battles. In it were the stories of the Battle of the Atlantic, Coral Sea, Midway, Leyte Gulf and Okinnowa. A neat piece of this game seems to be the ability to use ships named exactly for real ships in the war.
thanks for the battle report.
The battle went fairly quick. Maybe about an hour. We played with 200 point fleets, instead of the standard 100 points, so things would go even faster probably if you went with only 100. If you have enough pieces, though, I’d play with 200 or 300 point fleets. The rules are nice, but there’s still a lot of dice rolling involved. With smaller fleets, one lucky roll can drastically change the entire course of a battle. With larget fleets, stuff starts to average out a bit more and good strategy can overcome a few bad dice rolls.
Yay my WaS minis came!! I didnt get any carriers but I did get an Italian BS. Here are some pics.
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More pics.
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@Mechanized:
Yay my WaS minis came!! I didnt get any carriers but I did get an Italian BS. Here are some pics.
Is that an Atlanta? I’ve opened a starter and 13 boosters and have yet to find one :oops:
@Mechanized:
Yay my WaS minis came!! I didnt get any carriers but I did get an Italian BS. Here are some pics.
Is that an Atlanta? I’ve opened a starter and 13 boosters and have yet to find one :oops:
Which picture are you referring to?
Picture 2 - just beneath the Vittoro Vinetto
Picture 2 - just beneath the Vittoro Vinetto
Nah, thats a Jap destroyer, not the Atlanta. Are the stats for the Atlanta any good?
Correction, Picture 3, literally one sector below the V/V. And I just realized it’s a Gloire. In that pic it looks like it has an American color scheme.
Well I’ve now got my War at Sea and have opportunity to play through four games. I am pretty pleased. The most dissapointing part is that the boosters only hold 5 models each. Its mighty hard to collect at that rate. Now I had ordered a starter set and a case of the boosters meaning that of the 64 possible models I have at least one each of 49 different ones. Some of course you can use multiples of like the destroyers and U510. My set includes two Japanese aircraft carriers and two small US carriers. I was thrilled to get a Bismark but the Hood would have also been great.
I like the play system and as I get to know the special abilities I’ll get better at using them to advantage.
I played through a Sink the Bismark scenario twice now with a 120 point fleets. the objective for the Germans was to get from one end of the bay on the playing chart to the other while the British fleet had to sink the Bismark. The Germans had two Battleships, Bismark and Scarnhorst along with two Uboats and a supply ship. The Brits had a carrier, two swordfish flights, two cruisers, two destroyers and two subs.
First iteration the Germans plowed right through the Brits and got out to sea. The second time a Sword Fish flight was lucky in getting through the air defence. From there the Brits pounded the ship (can you say historical?) and won.
I look forward to some big fleet games to try and reduce the effect of chance.
Like all games, the scenarios are endless. i think I’ll make my next War at Sea a very littoral adventure with nothing larger than a destroyer ducking through the islands. the battleships are fun but they couldn’t be everywhere.
I’m prepping a couple of fleets for next week that are 150 pts each. In one I’m going very heavy on the aircraft with 50 % of the units being planes. In the other fleet I’m going battleship heavy.
Has anyone played enough scenarios to see any patterns as to what might be better.
Axis Fleet, 3 x battleships - Bismark, Scharnhorst, Vittaro Veneto and 1 x cruiser - Koln.
Alled Fleet, 2 x carriers - Princton & St Lo, 2 x cruisers - Sydney and Ajax, 1 x destroyer - Javelin,
Allied Aircraft, 3 x Swordfish, 3 x Devastators, 2 x Dauntless and 1 x Hurricane fighter.
Both fleets 150 points. Aim - control single objective marker in center of open sea.
Allied limitation, only three carrier based flights meaning that turns 2 and 4 that six flights were rearming on land. For preservation the carriers did not move from their initial positions until turn # 4 as there were chased down.
Allied Intent, swarm the enemy fleet with at least four flights per sector. That way the enemy fleet of two ships in that sector may shoot down or cause two flights to abort while the other two could continue to attack.
Axis limitation, no air.
Axis intent, to muscle their way into the allied fleet and blow it out of the water. This was accomplished on turn 2 when the two allied cruisers and the allied destroyer were ripped apart by surface gunnery. leaving only the aircraft carriers to go after the objective (not).
throughout the aircraft tried hard but only caused minor damage to the battleships. Surprisingly, none of the antiair fire managed to shoot down any allied aircraft though about 40% of all attacks were forced to abort.
I’m going to play this through a few times to see if it is still all in the dice.
Are there any similar experiences out there? The Battle of the Coral Sea was won by air power alone as no surface gunnery occurred. I’ll have to check the books to see if there were Battleships involved.
We fought through this again with the same fleets. Only difference was a series of islands across the center of the chart and three objectives, one in each of the safe passages created between the islands. At one point line of sight was blocked by an island.
Still too much in the dice I think. No aircraft shot down and few aborted.
One allied cruiser sunk
All four Axis ships sunk in four turns. The air attacks were extremely effective as the only surface damage to an Axis ship came from a cruisers torpedo
So I’ve played out these two fleets again in the same setting with the islands. This time the battlship heavy Axis fleet powered through the Allied fleet. Two of three battleships were damaged but not crippled. The entire allied fleet was sent to the bottom.
I wonder if there is two much firing for the amount of movement allowed. This particular scenario is easily completed in 4 turns. Playing this game verses the AAM land based troops seems too easy. In the land AAM you get the options to move or shoot and can introduce heros or paras at appropriete times.
How do we make it less chancy?
So I’ve played out these two fleets again in the same setting with the islands. This time the battlship heavy Axis fleet powered through the Allied fleet. Two of three battleships were damaged but not crippled. The entire allied fleet was sent to the bottom.
I wonder if there is two much firing for the amount of movement allowed. This particular scenario is easily completed in 4 turns. Playing this game verses the AAM land based troops seems too easy. In the land AAM you get the options to move or shoot and can introduce heros or paras at appropriete times.
How do we make it less chancy?
Carriers alone cannot beat BB consistantly… u must add subs which can deal with BB! Not sure the point level, but with 2-3 battleships im asuming you were using 150-200pts or more… Japan & German subs are the best, the UK sub isnt half bad either! In a 150 pt fleet try 5 subs… dont fear destroyers they are pathetic, subs really only fear other subs and planes.
Hi, I’m a new italian member.
I’d like very much this game and I ask you if there are a complete list of stats cards with all characteristics.
thank you
